China Approves Pilot Scheme for Naval Drones

China to Promote Drones for Marine Surveillance

LIANYUNGANG --- China will promote the use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to strengthen the nation's marine surveillance, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) said on Sunday.

The SOA verified and accepted a pilot program of using drones to undertake remote-sensing marine surveillance in Lianyungang, a coastal city in eastern Jiangsu Province on Sunday.

With the experience learned from the pilot program, the SOA would try to form a managerial system and technical regulations in a bid to set up UAV surveillance and monitoring bases in provinces along China's coastline by 2015, Yu Qingsong, a division chief of the administration said.

In addition, the SOA would step up efforts to enhance its surveillance of the islands and islets including the Diaoyu Islands and Huangyan Island.

According to the SOA, the use of pilotless aircraft in remote-sensing marine surveillance is relatively flexible, low-cost and efficient, compared with the performance of satellite remote sensing, aerial remote sensing and field monitoring.